The promise of comedy writing

The BBC advertised for submissions to one of their topical-comedy radio sketch shows. This is not normal; they usually advertise only when it is a new show and they are willing to take some risks - because they get inundated.

Our workshop leader strongly recommended that we send in some submissions, because it puts the submitter on the map, gives them experience, etc. So, the current group I am doing the course with, including me, all sent in our submissions. The radio show's team displayed extraordinary enthusiasm; they read through all the submissions in under one week. And now results have come in.

I was not successful. But they flagged me as having "showed promise" and encouraged me to submit more to them. Only one other person in my group got a similar nod. No one we know was successful.

So, it's pat on the back time. The show had hundreds of aspiring writers send submissions in. I was not in the top 10 of those, but I was not far off.

Given that I was going to ignore the competition altogether (I don't really care for topical sketches), but then decided to put something in, only 48 hours before the deadline, I've done pretty well. Now I am left to wonder how I would have fared had I started a little earlier!

I still do not think of myself as a good sketch writer, but it is clear I am making progress. My peers seem to think of me as a contender too, which is nice.

Some of my blog readers may recall a post I wrote in October when I was contemplating giving up on comedy writing altogether. I felt deeply insecure, thought my sense of humour unappreciated and different, and just generally felt that I do not belong in that world. Thanks to the blog-comment of a friend, I "stuck it out", and today I am glad I did.

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